How to Properly Handle a Break Up

Love is a wonderful thing. Love has inspired artwork, music, movies, and makes Hallmark a billion dollars a week. No matter how hard or long it takes you to discover love, the feeling of knowing someone else cares for you is like walking on clouds… while eating cake… with doves flying overhead … with Here Comes The Sun playing in the background.

But just when you think the person on your screen saver only has eyes for you, you realize that--as of last night--you are now back to saying the words, “Table for one, please.” But before you go tossing your computer out the window or doing something less than mannerly that you will soon regret, remember that there are ways to handle things properly.

How to Properly Handle a Break Up

First of all let’s establish one key point here; no matter how cheesy it sounds, you will fall in love again--trust me. I don’t care if your special someone was just in People Magazine’s Sexiest People Alive edition, you will go on. After all, as my grandmother once told me, “Sometimes the wrapper was sweeter than the candy”; which means, of course, not everyone is as great as they seem on the outside. Granted, she was telling me this in reference to my having just confessed my true love for Alyssa Milano* back in the Who’s The Boss? days, but it was still a lesson learned.

*Please, no offense Alyssa, I’m sure you are very nice but I was 11 at the time; it was her way of letting me down easy.

So with that, check out my top three quick and dirty ways to properly handle a breakup with grace, poise, good manners, and above of all else--maturity. Having manners in your everyday life is incredibly important, and dealing with such a hard to handle event like this will test your manners threshold like never before.

Note: For the sake of this column, let’s all assume that since we are all adults, the person you were in love with at least had the courtesy to do so in person. If they didn’t… well, I’ll tackle that in another article soon. Here’s a quick preview though – they stink! But I digress…

I know, I know, you thought you two would last forever. I know, I know, he said he had never met someone like you before. And I know, I know, you made plans for next summer already. Basically, all was bliss until the fatal words “It’s not working out for me anymore,” were uttered and your heart dropped ten floors below. In such haste, I beg you, do not react like Jerry Maguire and “flip out!”